In my last post about Turks and the Internet, I warned readers to beware of surfing the net in Turkiye. Here’s the reason. Internet security company AVG revealed most dangerous places to surf the net. Which country’s at the top of the list? Turkiye.

But it’s not just the Turkiye. Russia comes in second, followed by Armenia and Azerbaijan. The US ranked ninth.AVG looked at the number of times it had to deal with security issues in the month of July 2010. Data was gathered data from 144 countries and 124 million PCs. The more AVG had to step in, the more risky it’s considered to surf the web in that country.

Exactly how risky are we talking? Let’s look at which country is considered “safe” in order to understand what is considered “danger”. Japan was one of the safest countries, with only one in 403 interventions needed from online threats. Turkiye? ONE IN TEN. Russia came close with one in 15.

Where does Australia stand? Our land down under was ranked 67th with a one in 75 attack ratio. So not much to worry about, but still way behind in online safety and nowhere near the safest countries: Sierra Leone (one in 696), Niger (one in 442), and Japan. Continent-wise, South America was the safest.

AVG spokesperson Roger Thomson offered some insight as to why web surfers in some countries make surfing so risky:

Some of this may be a tendency to access semi-legal or illegal download sites, while some of it probably is down to being less cautious when it comes to sharing links and files online.

According to the study, users in the high risk Caucasus region (Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) were hands down more vulnerable to attack, most likely because of higher frequency of accessing illegal download sites, as well as the continuing popularity of INTERNET CAFES [emphasis my own].

So it’s wasn’t just online gaming and Russian dating sites that was the problem. It was illegal downloading. I’d be lying if I said I was surprised. My cousin’s music downloads of over 300 artists could only be done via bulk downloading or weeks of wasted life. I can’t remember the last time my cousins brought home a legally purchased movie. Blockbuster and Netflix would never make it into Turkiye, not while the country has an end-user piracy rate of 68%.

(Side note: In case you need it, AVG’s free anti-virus software currently has the highest CNET editor approval of all free anti-virus programs.)

4 Responses to Most dangerous places to surf the net

Do you know which place China is ranked? As far as i know, you computer will easily get virus when you surf the internet or download something. Also, you bank account, especially credit card security is a big issue in China.